Complaining to Jag main dealer

shatnersbassoon

shatnersbassoon

New member
Some advice required, or maybe just for me to vent a little.

I had my car serviced at a main dealer a couple of months ago, just before we went on a trip to Switzerland.
They made a note that the tyres were wearing slightly unevenly and that a 4 wheel alignment would be a good idea. The price was reasonable so I told them to go ahead and do it.

Everything seemed fine, but on the way back from the trip I noticed that there was a very slight knocking when going over bumps. I'd been driving it as they are meant to be driven while on the Swiss passes, so I guessed that maybe there was some suspension component that needed replacing.

The knocking was getting worse, so I took it to a trusted independent specialist (my closest Jag dealer couldn't look at the car for 2 months and wanted £380 to diagnose!)
Turns out that both track rod end lock nuts were loose. According to the independent, it could have been very dangerous if one had come off completely. Loss of steering on the Furka pass wouldn't have been fun!

Obviously I noticed before anything bad happened, but is it worth even complaining to the dealer?
They're not likely to do anything, and I'll not be taking my car back to them in the future.

Anyway, rant over.
 
shatnersbassoon said:
Some advice required, or maybe just for me to vent a little.

I had my car serviced at a main dealer a couple of months ago, just before we went on a trip to Switzerland.
They made a note that the tyres were wearing slightly unevenly and that a 4 wheel alignment would be a good idea. The price was reasonable so I told them to go ahead and do it.

Everything seemed fine, but on the way back from the trip I noticed that there was a very slight knocking when going over bumps. I'd been driving it as they are meant to be driven while on the Swiss passes, so I guessed that maybe there was some suspension component that needed replacing.

The knocking was getting worse, so I took it to a trusted independent specialist (my closest Jag dealer couldn't look at the car for 2 months and wanted £380 to diagnose!)
Turns out that both track rod end lock nuts were loose. According to the independent, it could have been very dangerous if one had come off completely. Loss of steering on the Furka pass wouldn't have been fun!

Obviously I noticed before anything bad happened, but is it worth even complaining to the dealer?
They're not likely to do anything, and I'll not be taking my car back to them in the future.

Anyway, rant over.
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I'd argue it probably isn't worth the effort in all honesty. Main dealers don't care in reality and will always have a steady stream of customers coming through the door. One less isn't going to bother them.
All you'll likely achieve is the stress relief of telling them how incompetent they are and getting that rage out.
 
I used a main dealer to service my jag once, they put the wrong grade of oil in it, never again will I take a car to a main dealer.
 
As above, not worth wasting your breath, time and stress in going to the dealer. They won’t do anything about it, nor can you expect them given time since it happened, other than them doing the alignment again for free. Probably not something you’d want anyway.
 
The only time I've ever been persuaded to have an alignment done when I had new tyres I had exactly the same loose locknut situation. Now, I'll only go to a specialist aligner (is that a word?) if I ever think the car is misbehaving tracking-wise (did that just once with excellent results).
 
Thanks all.
Confirmed my thoughts that’s it’s prob not worth the effort.
Lost faith in jag dealers to be honest. I’ve had dealings with 3 different ones in the last year, and they’ve all been bad in their own way.

Are other brands like Porsche any better?
 
I agree it's not worth the effort, but still can't hurt to tell their service dept. manager how useless they are :).
 
Fair rant, but be proactive!

Definitely worth letting the dealer and JLR customer relations know. I think it is a responsible move to flag it up.

I have had excellent work carried out (not without the odd fubar) because I put the effort in to forge a relationship with the dealer, so if/when and if things did go belly-up, I had extra leverage, and yes, it worked.
I rejected my first F-Type new F and got it replaced with a newly built one, just like that, not to mention other warranty works.

If you don't bother doing anything, they certainly won't be motivated to at least investigate it.
I would do it, a) for the personal satisfaction ;-) and b) to hopefully stop another customer having the same issue!

Phone call or two away, no brainer to me.
 
I hate things like this and sub standard work.

I would personally log a complaint and request the money back you paid Jaguar. As you have paid for a service that was not complete or to a standard not acceptable.

If they refuse I would contact the bank you paid via, presuming it was credit card, and request a charge back/refund and let them take it up.

That's just me though.
 
shatnersbassoon said:
Thanks all.
Confirmed my thoughts that’s it’s prob not worth the effort.
Lost faith in jag dealers to be honest. I’ve had dealings with 3 different ones in the last year, and they’ve all been bad in their own way.

Are other brands like Porsche any better?
Click to expand...
Don’t think the Brand matters it’s the individual dealer that makes the difference. Been using Dick Lovett for Porsche and Mini for many years and have great service, although some other Porsche owners have had poor experiences elsewhere. Also heard of a number of complaints re JLR dealers. I have three JLR dealers near to me, the furthest is Melksham which is also a DL site, was planning to use them for service unless you tell me that that’s the one that serviced your car 🤕
 
MikeM said:
shatnersbassoon said:
Thanks all.
Confirmed my thoughts that’s it’s prob not worth the effort.
Lost faith in jag dealers to be honest. I’ve had dealings with 3 different ones in the last year, and they’ve all been bad in their own way.

Are other brands like Porsche any better?
Click to expand...
Don’t think the Brand matters it’s the individual dealer that makes the difference. Been using Dick Lovett for Porsche and Mini for many years and have great service, although some other Porsche owners have had poor experiences elsewhere. Also heard of a number of complaints re JLR dealers. I have three JLR dealers near to me, the furthest is Melksham which is also a DL site, was planning to use them for service unless you tell me that that’s the one that serviced your car 🤕
Click to expand...


The 3 I've used in the last year are:

Sytner Bristol which was where I bought the car.
Shortly after picking the car up I had an engine warning light which turned out to be an O2 sensor. They wanted the car in for the day but didn't have any courtesy cars so I had to organise time off work/lifts back and forth to Bristol etc. They didn't start looking at the car until 4pm and then discovered they didn't have the part so the car wouldn't be ready till the next day. The work was carried out under warranty, so nothing to pay. But they did keep me waiting for over an hour to pick up it the next day.

A couple of weeks later I had an engine warning light again. Diagnosed by jag assist as an O2 sensor. The same sensor that Sytner replaced.
Booked in to DL Melksham this time as it's my closest dealer. They couldn't look at the car for a couple of months, but ultimately diagnosed that Sytner had replaced the wrong O2 sensor.

I used Grange in Swindon for a service and the wheel alignment. Melksham were about £400 more expensive for the same service compared to Grange, and could see the car within a couple of weeks, and could do it before our Swiss trip.
They were actually decent to deal with until I realised they don't own a torque wrench.

On the way back from getting an independent specialist to tighten up my nuts yesterday, I did pop in to Swindon Porsche to have a look.
They seemed a bit more friendly and efficient that the Jag dealers I've experienced so far.
 
Tel said:
Fair rant, but be proactive!

Definitely worth letting the dealer and JLR customer relations know. I think it is a responsible move to flag it up.

I have had excellent work carried out (not without the odd fubar) because I put the effort in to forge a relationship with the dealer, so if/when and if things did go belly-up, I had extra leverage, and yes, it worked.
I rejected my first F-Type new F and got it replaced with a newly built one, just like that, not to mention other warranty works.

If you don't bother doing anything, they certainly won't be motivated to at least investigate it.
I would do it, a) for the personal satisfaction ;-) and b) to hopefully stop another customer having the same issue!

Phone call or two away, no brainer to me.
Click to expand...

As you say, maybe worth letting them know to hopefully stop it happening to someone else.
I'm sure most Jag drivers would notice something like that before it the steering failed, but I guess it could still cause some serious stability issues.
 
If it's any consolation, back in 2015, there was a safety recall to address....yes, you guessed it....track rod end lock nuts not tightened to the specified torque.
And that's from the factory.

Mistakes happen, we're all human, your experience is inexcusable, that's why IMO it's even more important to flag with JLR.
 
Shatner, as you're in the area, try Mike Allen Services near Swindon Station. They've been excellent for me over many Jaguar years. Just not as pretty as main dealers.
 
Jaguandy said:
Shatner, as you're in the area, try Mike Allen Services near Swindon Station. They've been excellent for me over many Jaguar years. Just not as pretty as main dealers.
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Actually, they were the ones who tightened everything back up yesterday.
I’ve always used them in the past, they’re always great, but since this car has a FSH, I was just using the dealers for servicing and warranty work.
 
As a matter of interest my wife's Merc needed a 4 wheel check when we noticed one tyre wearing more than the rest. I took it to a local garage who advised they could only do a 2 wheel check and I should take the car to Kwickfit who did have the facilities and if the car was within tolerance there would be no charge.
I booked the car into Kwickfit who checked it and advised it was within tolerance, issued me the paperwork for each wheel and charged zero.
On the cars next service the Merc garage confirmed what Kwickfit had said all was OK.
 
Ratboiler said:
As a matter of interest my wife's Merc needed a 4 wheel check when we noticed one tyre wearing more than the rest. I took it to a local garage who advised they could only do a 2 wheel check and I should take the car to Kwickfit who did have the facilities and if the car was within tolerance there would be no charge.
I booked the car into Kwickfit who checked it and advised it was within tolerance, issued me the paperwork for each wheel and charged zero.
On the cars next service the Merc garage confirmed what Kwickfit had said all was OK.
Click to expand...

I've always avoided Kwikfit after a bad experience when they drained the oil and then realised they didn't have any replacement oil.
That was 25 years ago though in an old MR2, so they're probably a lot better these days.

Funny how one bad experience with a brand can change your opinion of it for a long time though.
 
shatnersbassoon said:
Funny how one bad experience with a brand can change your opinion of it for a long time though.
Click to expand...

My independent's motto is "it take years to build a reputation and minutes to lose it".
 
Same with Halfords. I've never taken any of my cars there because of a poor reputation. This year I ferried someone else's car there for some work they'd booked and was very impressed with the service and knowledge there. The tech I dealt with was superb, dealt with a tricky problem, not one of the expected yoofs with only basic knowledge.
 
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